in military affairs, a treaty made between the inhabitants or garrison of a place besieged and the besiegers, for the delivering up of the place on certain conditions. The most honourable and ordinary terms of capitulation are to march out at the breach with arms and baggage, drums beating, colours flying, a match lighted at both ends, and some pieces of cannon, waggons, and convoys for the baggage, and for the sick and wounded.

in the German polity, a contract which the emperor enters into with the electors, in the name of all the princes and states of the empire, before he is declared emperor, and which he ratifies before he is raised to that sovereign dignity. The principal points which the emperor undertakes to observe are, 1. To defend the church and empire; 2. to observe the fundamental laws of the empire; and, 3. to maintain and preserve the rights, privileges, and immunities of the electors, princes, and other states of the empire, specified in the capitulation.